Jacques Ehrmann was born in Mulhouse on March 31, 1931, the son of Paul Ehrmann and Henriette Weber. Born in the Alsace region by a twist of fate, as both the Ehrmann and Weber families were originally from Alsace but had left after the 1871 loss to Germany, it just happened that Mulhouse, then Strasbourg, were the first assignments of his father, an Engineering graduate from "École Polytechnique". The family, including his older brother Jean-Daniel, came back to Paris in 1939 and he graduated from the Lycée Henri IV with a Baccalauréat in 1949, then studied at the Sorbonne where he obtained a Licence-des-Lettres in 1953. In the meantime, he received a Fulbright scholarship and spent an academic year from 1951 to 1952 at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, the "City of Colleges, Cows and Contentment", a logo he loved to quote. He was called to military service from 1953 to 1955 and served in the "Régiment de Tirailleurs Algériens", and later as a translator in Germany for the US headquarters. During this time he met :fr:Pierre Riboulet|Pierre Riboulet who would go on to create the French architectural firm :fr:Atelier de Montrouge|l'Atelier de Montrouge with :fr:Gérard Thurnauer|Gérard Thurnauer and Jean-Louis Véret with whom he became lifelong friends while furthering his deep interest in Architecture. In 1956 he married Françoise Laborie and the couple moved to Los Angeles where he attended The University of California at Los Angeles and received a PhD in French Literature in 1961. There he met and befriended Raymond Federman with whom he perfected his tennis game. From 1959 to 1961 he taught at Pomona College in Claremont California while completing his doctoral dissertation. Concurrently working as a freelance correspondent for France Presse he was offered a full-time assignment in New York City at the same time as he was invited to join the Yale University Faculty. Having to choose between journalism and academia, he chose Yale University in 1961. He lived in Hamden, Connecticut, with his wife and two sons. As full professor he taught there in the French and Comparative Literature Departments and edited three issues of the "" review which were later published as books. He was very involved in academic activities including lectures, conferences, and colloquia... and continued to work through a long illness until his premature death on June 11, 1972. He leaves two sons, Guillaume, born February 24, 1959, and Laurent, born December 27, 1961.
Primary sources
Ehrmann, Jacques. 1963. Un paradis désespéré — L'amour et l'illusion dans "L'astrée". Published by Yale University Press / :fr:Presses universitaires de France|Presses Universitaires de France.
Ehrmann, Jacques. 1965. La France contemporaine — Choix de textes culturels. Edited with Michel Beaujour. Published by The MacMillan Co.
Ehrmann, Jacques. 1966. Structuralism. Published by Yale University Press, .
Ehrmann, Jacques. 1967. Literature and Revolution. Published by .
Ehrmann, Jacques. 1968. Game, Play, Literature. Published by .
Ehrmann, Jacques. 1971. "Textes" suivie de La mort de la littérature. Published anonymously by Editions de :fr:L'Herne|L'Herne directed by Michel Beaujour.
Ehrmann, Jacques. 1979. In Memory of Jacques Ehrmann — Inside Play Outside Game. Published by . Articles:
